I cannot believe I waited so long to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was riveting! Larsson was so adept in managing all of the story lines without dropping any of the pieces. When the book ends, you have no questions about the plot, and everything is tied up perfectly.

So, that’s enough with the gushing, and on with the commentary. After a disappointing legal battle, journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, is approached by Henrik Vanger to both write a biography of the Vanger family and to investigate the cold case of the murder of Harriet Vanger. The incentive for this project is not only financial but also promised is evidence to take down the man who charged Blomkvist with libel.

I loved the mystery and the characterizations. I didn’t feel as if this was a novel in translation; it reads wonderfully. Sometimes I wished there footnotes to translate some of the places like maybe that’s the Swedish version of Walmart, but I could mostly muddle through. I have already checked out the second book! Can’t you tell I liked it?